The following components can also be installed when you install vCenter Server.

VMware vCenter Server

Windows service to manage ESXi and legacy ESX hosts.

vCenter Single Sign On

The vCenter Single Sign On authentication service makes the VMware cloud infrastructure platform more secure by allowing the various vSphere software components to communicate with each other through a secure token exchange mechanism, instead of requiring each component to authenticate a user separately with a directory service like Active Directory. Available and required with vCenter Server 5.1.

Software used by the Database Upgrade wizard and the vSphere Client. Also used by vCenter Server if you are using the bundled database. If it is not installed on your system, the vCenter Server installer installs it.

Microsoft Windows Installer version 4.5

If you plan to use the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express database that is bundled with vCenter Server, Microsoft Windows Installer version 4.5 (MSI 4.5) is required on your system. You can also install MSI 4.5 directly from the vCenter Server autorun.exe installer.

VMware vCenter Orchestrator

vCenter Server module that provides a set of tools to manage your virtual IT environment. vCenter Orchestrator module is not supported on IPv6-only operating systems. If you install vCenter Server in a mixed environment (both IPv4 and IPv6 enabled), the vCenter Orchestrator module can be configured using IPv4. See the Administering vCenter Orchestrator. This component is installed automatically with vCenter Server.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express (optional)

Free, bundled version of the Microsoft SQL Server database for smaller scale applications. If you choose to use an existing database, the installer does not install the bundled database.

vSphere Client

Client application used to connect to an ESXi or legacy ESX host directly, or indirectly through a vCenter Server.

vSphere Web Client

Server application that provides a browser-based alternative to the vSphere Client. You can use the vSphere Web Client to manage an ESXi host by Web browser through a vCenter Server.

vSphere Update Manager

vCenter Server component that provides security monitoring and patching support for hosts and virtual machines.

vSphere ESXi Dump Collector

vCenter Server support tool. You can configure ESXi to dump the vmkernel memory to a network server, rather than to a disk, when the system has encountered a critical failure. The Dump Collector collects such memory dumps over the network.

vSphere Syslog Collector

vCenter Server support tool that provides a unified architecture for system logging and enables network logging and combining of logs from multiple hosts.

vSphere Auto Deploy

vCenter Server support tool that can provision hundreds of physical hosts with ESXi software. You can specify the image to deploy and the hosts to provision with the image. Optionally, you can specify host profiles to apply to the hosts, and a vCenter Server location (folder or cluster) for each host.

vSphere Authentication Proxy

vCenter Server support tool that enables ESXi hosts to join a domain without using Active Directory credentials. This tool enhances security for PXE-booted hosts and hosts that are provisioned using Auto Deploy, by removing the need to store Active Directory credentials in the host configuration.